bizRichard

Unless you are a category of business I’ve yet to come across, there is almost no business, I’ve discovered, during my 26 years of working with small to medium-sized enterprises, that will not respond to remedial action as regards those absolutely critical elements in the growth and survival of any enterprise - turnover, profits, and the cash flow.

In fact, if your business is like many others I’ve encountered, it may respond quicker than you expect, possibly the most immediately.

Understand that any enterprise has, inherently, the ability to grow, not just by 10%, 20%, or 40%, but by much more, by 100%, 200%, 400%, and sometimes more still. It is rare, even though you may not understand today how this can be achieved, that your business will not be capable of this degree of sizeable growth. As with the majority of cases, there is a 95% chance that your business can accomplish substantially more market share, more revenues, and more profitability than it is doing right now.

Not only that, but you can establish a significant
improvement fairly rapidly.

Tweaking the business drivers in your organisation, is like driving a car — as you move up through the gears, so you achieve better results at a faster and faster pace and more and more efficiently too.

Let me share a case study with you (although clearly I have changed the details to protect our client’s identity).

A managing director, referred to us by an existing client, phoned in an emotional state late one evening. His bankers had confirmed that afternoon that they would be calling in his company’s loan and overdraft facilities the following week. He had nowhere to turn on for additional funds and was facing the liquidation of a family business he had spent a lifetime building.

But, unlike so many businesses with cash flow problems, debtors were negligible — the business’s sales were mostly ‘cash on delivery’. So the challenge was this - there was no obvious or quick solution for generating the cash now desperately needed.

What’s more, this unfortunate individual had recently used up all his personal equity in a re-mortgage with the bank, the personal funds from which he had already ploughed back into the business to try saving it.

He was, quite literally, between ‘a rock and a hard place’.
You must NEVER find yourself in that place

And, perhaps most alarming, total liabilities weren’t far short of the rapidly declining turnover.

Clearly any remedial action had to come about through a radical change in the business strategy - but it had to be swift too.

SOLUTION: what we did was to formulate new short-term and mid-term strategies, involving sweeping changes to the marketing drivers, and presented these to the bank. On examination, the bank realised the commercial sense made by the revised strategic plan, and agreed to defer their action for three months.

The results of this reformulated strategy and emergency action were rapid and staggering.

Within three months sales had increased markedly, profitability ratios had improved significantly, and cash had started flowing strongly. And, of prime concern to the bank, their facilities were again being properly serviced. Fifteen months on, and the bank’s facilities were almost fully covered, much earlier than ever expected.

The bank could hardly believe that such
a turnaround was possible

But this type and speed of turnaround is virtually predictable when one or more of the critical business drivers I focus on are implemented specifically and applied relentlessly.

Imagine this level of revenue and profits growth,
and cash generation, in your business

Properly structured and managed, there is no reason why you also cannot take your enterprise to the very top of your particular field too.

Further articles will follow on the how and the why - it’s that easy.

Ask me how - it’s that easy.